


Sam

by suecsit



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid
Genre: M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-17 01:23:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14822561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suecsit/pseuds/suecsit
Summary: Their first session together is at the pool. Johnny tries to make Daniel jealous.





	Sam

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to "Topanga." Part of the "Bert" series. It's better to read them in order.

“Sam”

Johnny knew that to make Daniel and his students comfortable he had to pick a neutral location for their first training session. Aisha’s father had arranged for them to have two hours at the Country Club’s indoor pool one Saturday evening, and he figured that if he couldn’t make Daniel feel comfortable there among his rich friends he couldn’t make him feel comfortable anywhere. 

Although it seemed like lately that hadn’t been such a problem.

The new problem was…. Johnny didn’t like thinking about Daniel going home. Or rather, he didn’t like him going home to Amanda. At first he didn’t care. But he had to admit that since the beach, well, things had changed. 

Daniel seemed willing to make joint teaching a reality. He even seemed willing to follow Johnny’s lead when it came to their relationship. Even so, that didn’t change the fact that he was married.

So Johnny took matters into his own hands. He decided to have a girl drop him off at the Country Club the night they planned to meet for their students’ first joint karate practice. It didn’t really matter who it was…he just wanted to show up with someone else, maybe kiss her on the cheek before they pulled away. And since Daniel and he had started whatever it was they had started, Johnny’s ability to attract women had been improving. Maybe it was just the confidence that came from being wanted. 

He asked one of the girls who had just started working in the strip mall if she wanted to grab a bite on Saturday, and she said yes. They had spent an hour or so eating and talking over pizza before the practice started. 

When she dropped Johnny off, like he asked, she made it all too easy. She leaned in, and he pecked her on the lips. 

Because fate was on Johnny's side more often lately, Daniel did happen to pull up and see it. For a moment his face registered surprise and then irritation. Rather than wait for Johnny, he and his daughter Sam entered the club alone. 

The younger Cobras would be joining them there, too. The exercise involved “thinking with your legs” by treading water without the aid of your hands. This was something Miguel and the advanced students had mastered long ago, so Johnny thought it best that they be excluded from this first meeting. 

It also helped that he didn’t have to watch his son interact with Miguel or Hawk. It took the pressure off.

Once Johnny got inside, he saw Daniel standing alone. Sam had gone into the bathroom to change. They were the first ones to arrive. 

“Where’s Robby?” Johnny asked.

Daniel took out his phone and checked his texts. “He’s meeting us here.” 

For the 100th time Johnny felt angry that Daniel got texts from his son while he didn’t even know his kid’s number. 

What helped was seeing the effect of the kiss on Daniel’s demeanor, though. He was giving Johnny a cold shoulder, but underneath that cold was a temper about to explode. Johnny wanted it to. Part of him missed Daniel’s anger and longed for it to be directed at him. 

Daniel put his phone up and walked around the perimeter of the pool, acting like he was bored. “So Miguel won't be here,” Daniel remarked.

“Observant, aren’t you. I told you he’s already done this exercise a million times—“

“That’s not why he’s missing though, is it? You did it for Robby.”

“Robby doesn’t need me to baby him. He can be in the room with the guy who kicked his ass at the tournament.”

“Too bad his dad still has trouble with that.” Daniel turned to meet his gaze for the first time, his eyes challenging.

“Larusso, I swear if you don’t shut up—“

“Oh, let me guess. You’ll pull another stunt like the one you just pulled in the parking lot.”

“I don’t’ know what you’re talking about,” Johnny snapped.

“You don’t? So you didn’t look over at me just before you sucked her face off. I must have imagined it.” At this point both men were standing on opposite sides of the deep end, the pool at peace without swimmers in it. 

Johnny thought how satisfying it would be to push Daniel in. 

“Nobody’s sucking anybody’s face off around here. And besides, what the fuck do you care?” Johnny had the decency to check and make sure Sam was still in the bathroom. “You’re married.”

For just a moment, Daniel’s defenses were down, and he was looking at Johnny with a lost expression. A few minutes passed with the two men staring at each other from across the pool. Then the defenses came back up and the sarcasm returned.

“Since when does the great Sensei Lawrence play by the rules?” 

“What are you talking about?”

“Since when do you care about doing the right thing?”

“I didn’t tell my kids to hurt Robby or anybody else!” Johnny moved toward Daniel but stopped halfway there.

Daniel didn’t. Before Johnny knew it, the man was in his face. “Oh yeah? Right, because ‘no mercy’ is a way of making people do nice things to each other. Don’t mess with my daughter that way tonight.”

Johnny felt a thrill at how easily Daniel’s anger began to make itself visible. He also felt delicious satisfaction in Daniel's fear of Johnny coaching his daughter. 

The two men realized suddenly that half the Cobra group and Robby were now listening to them. They stepped apart quickly. 

Johnny barked, “Fall in. Let me see your wrists. Everyone needs to do at least 5 minutes before they leave!” Johnny went up and down the row tying rope around each kid’s hands so they couldn’t use their arms to help them swim.

Daniel shook his head and felt his hands ball into fists. Sam had jumped in at the end of the row, looking a little nervous. “You don’t have to do this,” he told her. 

“Sam,” Johnny said, “He’s right. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.” Johnny looked directly at Daniel when he said it. He was curious what Daniel would do if he refused to rise to the bait. 

When it came to losing his temper, Johnny had his moments. Still, he had a better track record of controlling it recently in public spaces. Miguel had helped him with that.

When Johnny said Sam’s name, Daniel’s spine stiffened. He defensively moved behind her and his arms went to her shoulders. 

Sam looked at her father with some amusement and stepped away from him. “I’ve done this before,” she said. She then held her wrists out to Johnny, inviting him to restrain her. 

Daniel watched helplessly as Johnny tied the knots. The way Johnny was looking at him—well, this was payback. He caught Robby’s eye and Robby quickly looked away. 

The lesson started. The whole hour consisted of Johnny yelling orders and Daniel just watching him do it. Daniel felt like he needed a shower or a strong martini. Something to make the images of Kreese go away. He knew Johnny wasn’t Kreese, he knew that just by watching him encourage Bert in the water when he failed to stay afloat for two minutes, but if you squinted hard enough you could still hear echoes of that crazy man in Johnny’s orders. 

Robby managed to tread water for seven minutes and then looked at Daniel with narrow eyes. “Please tell me this hell is over soon,” he muttered, spitting out some of the water that he had almost swallowed. Daniel extended a hand to help him out. Daniel nodded, “I think this hell is going to be over soon.”

These were the lies Daniel told himself.

Sam was still treading water when most of them had emerged from the pool. She shot her father a smug look. Daniel nodded in embarrassment, acknowledging that he had been in the wrong. “I surrender, you were right,” he told her and reached his hand out again. She didn’t need him to protect her. 

He ripped the ropes off of Robby and Sam’s hands with some degree of force. The two looked at each other but remained silent. A smile was playing at Sam’s lips. 

To Johnny’s credit the man didn’t interfere with any of Daniel’s interactions with Robby or Sam. He just observed quietly, unwilling to disturb the truce he and his son had managed to reach since the tournament. That wasn’t all, though. He didn’t watch his son because then he’d have to admit that Robby didn’t need him, that all he needed was Daniel. Right now he couldn’t deal with that, so he shoved it aside and watched the other students. 

Truth be told, he was really impressed with Sam. The kid who wrecked his car was a damn fine athlete, and he never would have guessed it. He also couldn’t help but wonder how Daniel would feel if he taught Sam to strike first and strike hard. 

Sam was catching a ride with a friend that night, so she didn’t need to go home with her father. She looked refreshed and excited, not just at enjoying a Saturday night but at how well she had done in Johnny’s presence. She waved goodbye, and the other students left the club. 

Daniel and Johnny were alone.

 

“Well,” Daniel said, “That was entertaining.”

“Larusso—“

“No, no. I love the bondage theme you have going here. You’re keeping the porn industry in the Valley alive and well.”

Johnny chuckled. “If today was your idea of porn, Larusso, you’re more sheltered than I thought.” 

Daniel seemed to deflate at that. He sat down on a plastic lawn chair with his head in his hands. 

Johnny took pity on him. “Look,” he said, sitting down next to Daniel. “Everyone was perfectly safe. And I think you know that.”

Daniel didn’t answer. He hands clenched around his own hair, pulling at the strands. And his voice sounded far away when he finally muttered, “Fuck you, Johnny. No one here is safe.” He stood up quickly as if waking from a bad dream and hurried to retrieve his bag and leave. 

“Wait,” Johnny called out. “Just wait a second,”

“No.”

“You left your wallet,” Johnny said.

Daniel groaned. He turned around and walked back over to retrieve it. Johnny held it out for him, but instead of releasing it, he tossed it on the chair and pushed Daniel hard toward the water. 

Daniel fell in, his sweats and pullover taking him down at first. The clothing was heavier than he thought. When he opened his eyes, he saw another dark shape descend next to him. He used both legs to kick it away, just as Robby had done in the tournament. 

They both came to the top at about the same time. “Thanks for knocking the wind out of me,” Johnny barked.

“Thanks for knocking me in the pool,” Daniel retorted. “You don’t change, do you.”

“Teach me that move.”

Daniel was completely disarmed. “What?”

“The double kick.”  
“I can’t do it except in here. You’ll have to ask your son how to do it on dry land.” Daniel reached over and pulled his expensive watch off and tossed it, missing the chair where his bag and wallet remained. 

“You planning to swim for a while?” Johnny looked surprised.

“Isn’t this how these things play out? You move me where you want me, and I just follow the script.” Daniel leaned back and floated, looking up at the ceiling, the warehouse-like beams crossing over the expanse. His clothes floated beside him, offering buoyancy. 

For once Johnny didn’t know what to say or do. He just stood, halfway between the deep and shallow ends of the pool, watching Daniel float. “Is that what you think?”

“I don’t think. I know.” Daniel’s eyes drifted shut for a moment.

“Right, because you’re all about balance and nature and being calm…What a load of horse shit. Larusso, I know you hated what Hawk did at that tournament. But you and Hawk have the exact same temper. You act like you’re all Zen about life and karate, but you’re just as much of a hothead as he is.”

Daniel sat up from his meditative pose, still treading water, his eyes open and on Johnny now. “Who is she?” 

“She’s a friend.” 

Daniel tilted his head to the side, regarding Johnny with some doubt. “You just met her, didn’t you.”

“No. We go way back.”

“Right.”

“I’m serious.” Johnny moved closer to Daniel, enjoying the way their wet clothes made them both look poor and disheveled for once. In the water you couldn’t tell who was a member of this stupid club and who wasn’t. 

Johnny couldn’t resist creating a story. “I knew her in high school,” he added, and Daniel circled him slowly, returning to a place where he could touch the bottom. “She’s been obsessed with me for decades.”

They both were close enough now to touch. Johnny still had some rope in his pockets, and he pulled it out from beneath the water. He took Daniel’s hands and began to tie them together just as he had done with his students. The rope was like limp spaghetti, completely saturated and scented with chlorine. 

Johnny nudged him back down the sloping pool floor. “Now it’s your turn,” he said softly.

Daniel pushed him back, but the rope on his wrists made that difficult. “I already know how to tread water, wise guy.”

Johnny went under and came up inside Daniel’s tied hands, positioning them just so behind his neck and enjoying the embrace. “I miss you when you’re not here,” Johnny whispered. 

“I’m here now.”

“I know.” Johnny leaned in and tasted summer, chlorine and skin. He kissed Daniel’s neck and felt him shiver. His hands moved up to grasp the strong shoulders and hold them in place. His lips stayed too long this time. They would leave a mark. 

Daniel didn’t care. He let his hair fall back into the pool, his neck arched. It was so easy just to give in.

“You were jealous,” Johnny mumbled, still nibbling and sucking at the skin. 

Daniel shook his head no but didn’t press the matter. Johnny moved his hands up and down Daniel’s back, looking for purchase under all of the floating clothes. He found it, at the base of his spine. His fingers searched lower. He heard the other man take in a sharp breath. 

Daniel moved closer, feeling Johnny behind him and in front of him. Either way he moved, those hands found him and held him close. He leaned in to explore Johnny’s neck with his lips just the way Johnny’s own fingers explored him below. 

When Johnny’s finger entered him, his head dropped on Johnny’s shoulder, and his tethered hands moved into Johnny’s blond hair, pulling on the nape. Daniel moaned and burrowed deeper into Johnny’s neck. 

A door slammed. 

The two men were startled and pulled back from each other. Johnny quickly pulled the rope on Daniel’s hands and untied it. 

“What was that?” Johnny’s eyes darted around the empty space, searching for the source of the noise.

Daniel climbed out of the pool, barely managing not to trip on his soggy sweatpants. He looked out the window. Bert was walking quickly to his mother’s car, and he could hear the engine as they pulled out of the parking lot.


End file.
